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You sit down to watch a movie and ask Netflix for help. Zoolander 2?") The Netflix recommendation algorithm predicts what movie you'd like by mining data on millions of previous movie-watchers using sophisticated machine learning tools. And then the next day you go to work and every one of your agencies will make hiring decisions with little idea of which candidates would be good workers; community college students will be largely left to their own devices to decide which courses are too hard or too easy for them; and your social service system will implement a reactive rather than preventive approach to homelessness because they don't believe it's possible to forecast which families will wind up on the streets. You'd love to move your city's use of predictive analytics into the 21st century, or at least into the 20th century. You just hired a pair of 24-year-old computer programmers to run your data science team. But should they be the ones to decide which problems are amenable to these tools? Or to decide what success looks like?

Google's software engineers develop the next-generation technologies that change how billions of users connect, explore, and interact with information and one another. Our products need to handle information at massive scale, and extend well beyond web search. We're looking for engineers who bring fresh ideas from all areas, including information retrieval, distributed computing, large-scale system design, networking and data storage, security, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, UI design and mobile; the list goes on and is growing every day. As a software engineer, you will work on a specific project critical to Google's needs with opportunities to switch teams and projects as you and our fast-paced business grow and evolve. We need our engineers to be versatile, display leadership qualities and be enthusiastic to take on new problems across the full-stack as we continue to push technology forward.

It's no secret that Google is one of the most innovative companies on the planet. Besides pioneering and then dominating the search industry, it has also become a leader in developing futuristic technologies such as artificial intelligence, driverless cars and quantum computing. It has even launched a life science company. What makes Google so successful is not one particular process, but how it integrates multiple strategies into a seamless whole. For example, Google Brain started out as a 20% time project, then migrated out to its "X" Division to accelerate development and finally came back to the mothership, where it now collaborates closely with engineering teams to build new products.

Read on if you like robots and GPUs. Nvidia robotics lab opens: Nvidia's AI robotics lab has officially opened its doors after CEO Jensen Huang paid a visit to its Seattle office. The lab was announced back in November last year with an initial staff of 14 researchers, but is now hoping to expand to 32 by the middle of 2019. It will be led by Dieter Fox, who is currently on leave from his role as a professor of computer science at the University of Washington. Researchers will focus on merging AI software with hardware to create robots for manufacturing and healthcare purposes.

When I mention "artificial intelligence" or "machine learning," the first thing that crosses your mind is probably humanoid robots. However, AI goes far beyond that. It represents an umbrella term used for sophisticated technologies, such as super-smart algorithms, machine learning, and natural language processing. Download our free e-book to learn everything you need to know about chatbots for your business. The recent ISG report claims that businesses are starting to recognize the importance of AI.

Once an internet buzzword, digital transformation is now a strategic initiative being pursued across every industry. Companies in all sectors are investing significant time and capital into the digital infrastructure necessary to compete in tomorrow's business landscape. However, enabling digital business and increasing digital presence is not enough. Leading companies understand that they also need to address their relevance across all digital interactions. Digital success is binary, and 100 percent driven by relevance.

And the problem with living through a revolution is that it's impossible to take the long view of what's happening. Hindsight is the only exact science in this business, and in that long run we're all dead. Printing shaped and transformed societies over the next four centuries, but nobody in Mainz (Gutenberg's home town) in, say, 1495 could have known that his technology would (among other things): fuel the Reformation and undermine the authority of the mighty Catholic church; enable the rise of what we now recognise as modern science; create unheard-of professions and industries; change the shape of our brains; and even recalibrate our conceptions of childhood. And yet printing did all this and more. Because we're about the same distance into our revolution, the one kicked off by digital technology and networking. And although it's now gradually dawning on us that this really is a big deal and that epochal social and economic changes are under way, we're as clueless about where it's heading and what's driving it as the citizens of Mainz were in 1495. That's not for want of trying, mind. Library shelves groan under the weight of books about what digital technology is doing to us and our world.

The number of techy tools that brokers have access to in their toolbox is growing as broker management systems include more and more features, technology vendors offer solutions that allow for the analysis of data coming in from carriers, and insurers plan out brokerage environments of the future that are focused on the customer experience. Not all technology will prove to be useful to brokers, at least not at the outset when these tools are still being honed, and some will fail to be adopted widely – one only has to look at Segways to realize that technology is not always as transformative as it promises. In the case of one brokerage, chatbots were that tech tool that didn't quite take off. "We were one of the brokerages experimenting with chatbots and we never really got to a point where it was there for us to go all in on them," said John McClelland, broker and director of digital for McClelland Insurance, and founder of miBroker, adding that it wasn't a complete enough solution. While the firm's experiments involved using chatbots for lead generation, the next piece of the puzzle was missing.

Maoyan Entertainment, China's biggest online movie ticketing platform, is seeking to raise as much as US$345 million in a Hong Kong initial … By target, the hottest sectors were tech, entertainment and culture, e-commerce, … as regulators relaxed restrictions on M&A and IPO approvals. Tencent and Alibaba, China's biggest tech groups and two of the country's most acquisitive buyers, have stepped on the brakes after a … Let's start with Honor, a sub-brand of Chinese tech giant Huawei, … with super low-cost phones made by Chinese tech giant TCL under the … China's push for technology self-reliance faces reality check, says … The problem is that a large proportion of suppliers in China's technology industry are foreign based, often with headquarters in Taiwan, South … Tencent Holdings, the largest video game publisher in the world and owner of China's top messaging app WeChat, made 163 investments in … China has been scrambling to catch up to the U.S. cloud computing … intelligence research and so-called "smart cities," which generate a lot of … As the trade war between China and the United States rumbles on, its focus has shifted from deficits and surpluses towards more technological .. The Alibaba effect: Chinese e-tailer tightens grip over 600m lives … It is also a world leader in technologies like artificial intelligence. Artificial Intelligence Is Powerful--And Misunderstood. The potential applications for AI are extremely exciting. World's most valuable AI startup SenseTime unveils self-driving center … Xiaomi Corp. will invest at least 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) on artificial intelligenceand smart devices over the next five years, as the … According to the Chinese media, the joint venture between Riot and Tencent will be established in Shanghai.

This is the CTOvision assessment on the megatrend of Artificial Intelligence. This report gives a high level overview of the most important factors of the trend, gives updated insights into the activities of the major AI companies, and succinct descriptions of AI tech. The field is growing dramatically with the proliferation of high powered computers into homes and businesses and especially with the growing power of smartphones and other mobile devices. AI requires lots of data to be effective and with the proliferation of mobile devices there is more data now than ever. There are many key technologies used in fielding AI.